BBC News 24 at Winter camp

While much of the United Kingdom came to a grinding halt due to the unusually severe winter weather a group of 2500 tough explorer scouts, aged between ten and eighteen, have just enjoyed a weekend of outdoor winter camping fun.

If you, like me, need a warm, comfortable bed at night then you will find it hard to understand why anyone would want to spend several nights sleeping under canvas in sub-zero temperatures.Being prepared, as the old scout motto says, is clearly the answer when it comes to winter camping. This means having the right camping equipment and some good quality, warm outdoor clothing and plenty of layers.

There were no less than 70 adventurous activities available for the scouts to enjoy and keep warm. They had the chance to warm up with a little trampolining and have a go at zorbing, abseiling, orienteering and, of course, some snowboarding.

Making certain that the scouts were all safe was a key factor. Organisers carried out careful risk assessments to ensure that those coming to the Gilwell campsite in east london would be safe.

To keep warm at night, when temperatures plummeted to minus six degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit), the hardy scouts doubled up on sleeping bags and squeezed together with fellow scouts to share body warmth.

When I chatted to a few of the tough young scouts they said that the key to staying warm in these winter conditions was to wear plenty of warm layers. The youngsters told me that they were wearing around 7 layers with two pairs of gloves (mittens being the best) and some very thick, warm winter socks. They also recommended wearing a very warm hat as a great deal of body heat can be lost from the head.

It looked like so much fun I was almost tempted to join them, but then I remembered my warm comfortable bed at home and decided that I was nowhere near tough enough for these sub-zero winter camping conditions.